CHOOSE ANYTHING ・ JUST DO SOMETHING

As I travel around in my life and navigate my way through the online world, I get so many questions about how I became the person that I am today and how I figured out what I wanted to do with my life. A couple of months ago I posted on YouTube one of my first sit down in front of the camera and talking about my fears, accomplishments etc. kind videos that was a little daunting but none the less, it helped me gain more confidence in speaking in front of a camera. I had a message hit my inbox about a certain comment I had made about “changing” your career when things didn’t feel right. The person questioning me gave the analogy where they said, “That’s basically like getting divorced each time a marriage doesn’t work.” My initial thought was, “What’s wrong with that?“

In the example that I was using, straight out of high school I was a real estate agent but after a year I figured it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I then enrolled in fashion college and I started working in fashion sales believing I’d work my way into becoming a fashion buyer for a large department store. During my studies and hands on work in the field of fashion, I discovered I had a natural talent for visual merchandising and began attracting better paying roles and even more hands on experience in retail. I then decided I’d gain as many skills as I could within fashion and dream bigger, that’s when I set my heart on working towards becoming a fashion stylist.

As our general world was changing and social media became one of the biggest tools to create an online platform where you had every potential to garner an international voice, blogging was second nature to me and helped me connect with people all over the world, along with building up my own voice. When I started in fashion, blogging and the world of Facebook as we know it today were nothing compared to the huge enterprises they are today so there is no way that I could have stepped into the fashion industry 11 years ago knowing that I’d be a blogger. I just went with the flow.

“Choose something you kinda like & don’t hate.” Neil Strauss

So I knew I was ‘over‘ real estate although I was relatively good at it but figured fashion would relight that fire inside of me and it did. Sure, I really didn’t see myself selling Sass and Bide jeans for the rest of my life and in the beginning, I really did not enjoy selling clothes to people,but as I matured and found peace with my goals, I learned how to appreciate the customer experience.

I always knew I wanted to be my own name and from the age of 20 owned this domain name, revamping it from personal diary to fashion blog to now international travel & lifestyle blog. I was able to adapt my experience over the years and use my skill set to turn this into a business that I now enjoy and treasure each day.

I don’t doubt for a second that I wouldn’t have made it as a fashion buyer if I stuck with my initial goal but would I have the life and freedom to live the way that I do if I had stuck with this? Probably not. I always wanted to be my own boss, my own name and own voice, this is a dream I have had since I was very young. I wanted to travel and tell stories that inspired people to live their dreams, using my own scandalous life as an example. Although I am not directly involved in the fashion industry anymore, it’s still the a path that I took 11 years ago that opened me up to the world I enjoy today and enabled me to pick up freelance jobs anywhere in the world and also operate as a consultant.

I never had any “concrete” plans in my life and always left a little room for things to change or evolve. Yes, when I was younger I feared changing my mind and was a lot more loyal to sticking to one thing but I figured quite quickly that I needed to leave room for change and ways of improving. All the skills that I had accumulated over the years including styling and sales go hand in hand with my job today. As for YouTube, it may look like a silly side hobby but nothing can detract from the fact it has given me more confidence in my speaking and at the end of the day, I always wanted to teach people how to be amazing, I just had to work out how to be pretty amazing myself first.

Getting Divorced Over & Over?

I think not. Well not in my case, it was an accumulation of skills that translated into the job I have today. I still don’t believe anyone should worry about switching careers in order to pursue a passion. Life is way too short to be waking up in agony over a place you don’t want to be during that day. I would be comfortable to get divorced every year if it meant trying something new to figure out what I really wanted to do. So many of us are stuck in belief patterns that instil and fear in us that change is bad when in actual fact change is good. Change means growth, wider horizons and greater opportunities. If you’re stuck and haven’t moved in years, it is time for change.

The video below hit my radar this afternoon and related back to my story above nicely. It involves one person whose work I have admired for many years now and another who I am just coming to admire more and more each month. Neil Strauss is one of the greatest writers and story tellers I have come across in my life and I love his ability to connect you with the moment through words. There are quite a few great examples here that will encourage you to take action NOW.